All over Portland, we are squinting and wondering at what it is we are seeing.

Sun! Sunshine! Sun, shining!

It’s a bit painful to behold, as our eyes aren’t used to this much light. But, as we have been told through legend and myth, it is rather beautiful.

My favorite (good smelling) rhodie dazzles.

Beyond the dimness of the covered and magnolia-ed garden room, the magnolia leaves and ash trees swarm with light.

Luckily, we are in for a full week of rain after this six hours of piercing light, so we’ll have time to adjust. And as it didn’t rain, much, this morning, this may have been only the third (rather than the second) most rainy May in recorded history. As it was impossible that it be the first worst, best to have only come in third. –June